Anthony Ralston of SUNY Buffalo had written the paper "The RealScandal in American School Mathematics," and it was publishedin Education Week on April 27, 2005. A slightly edited copy ofthis paper is available at http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~ar9/TeacherQual.html.I had read this paper earlier tonight, and I find it to be a usefulpaper that addresses a vital question about improving K-12 matheducation that is, however, rarely asked: What exactly do we do aboutthe problems of teachers' declining understanding of mathematicsover the last fifty or so years? Can this problem be easily fixedor not (assuming politics and selfish interests and other such garbagedoes not get in the way)? If not, why not?

Ralston mentions that one reason the severity of teachers' bankruptunderstanding of mathematics continues to go unnoticed is that manymathematicians do not want to be seen as teacher-bashers, as arrogant jerks who like to belittle those who do not understand math as they do.I'm sure there are exceptions, but I imagine this general principle is most likely true since I don't hear many mathematicians speaking out against this problem. Many mathematicians do tend to steer clear ofK-12 math education altogether either to avoid these controversieswith K-12 math education or because they want to remain as completelyfocused on math research as much as possible. I don't remember whereI had read this, but I do remember reading from somewhere sometimeearlier this year that many high-class mathematicians consider matheducation as the work of minor mathematicians who couldn't cut it inmath research. That is, math education is not the work of a "realmathematician."

Ralston states evidence of the severity of the decline in teachers'understanding of math: increasing numbers of math teachers withouta major or even a minor in math, alarming rates of math anxietyamong elementary school teachers, the study done by Liping Maand reported in her book "Knowing and Teaching ElementaryMathematics." I had seen this book mentioned often enough that I know I must get a copy when I can. This decline is certainlywell known, but apparently few people know how severe this declinereally is.

Ralston makes an excellent point that NCLB is also causing severedamage to this problem because the law does not mention or implementany programs to attract qualified teacher candidates to K-12 schoolsand actually discourages qualified teacher candidates from even considering teaching as a career because of all the crap this law promotes by turning education and teachers' careers into a joke(here, I use "qualified teacher candidate" to refer to anyone whohas at least the required understanding of the subject to teacheffectively in K-12, whether that person is considering teaching or not). I can see why these people would not be attracted to teaching. NCLB has turned K-12 teaching into almost a living hell, and thereactions of most teachers confirm that. When I think about thismess resulting from NCLB, I'm glad that I changed my mind aboutteaching high school math. I would detest being forced to teach tomindless tests and to pass slews of students in high school mathclasses whose understanding of math is so low that they can't passeven a fifth grade math test (forced in the sense that I would have todo all this to keep my job, that is).

Ralston does mention that NCLB is not the only reason that teachingas a career has gotten worse over the years. Even before NCLB, benefits for teachers have declined, and workloads and stress haveincreased. Though he doesn't mention this, I think it is also worthmentioning that discipline and behavior have become much worse problemsamong students in recent years. Many teenagers I have seen myself havethe kinds of attitude problems that I cannot stand. Such problemsdo occur among some college students, but those problems are nowhereas severe. The schools I do teach for do give me the right not totolerate such behavior. The Kaplan Math Center does not either, andseveral students have been barred from tutoring because of theirhighly inappropriate behavior (for instance, one student had calledone of the tutors a moron because she did not understand the businessor finance terminology the student was using); however, such behaviorrarely occurs. But the K-12 classroom is much different from that,and I don't understand how the rights of a highly distruptivestudent--one who clearly is making it difficult for the teacher toteach and the other students to learn--supercedes the rights ofthe teacher to teach and the other students to learn. If rights conflict, the greater right is supposed to win: The rights ofthose other students and the teacher are greater than that onestudent's right to remain in class, especially when that one studentis clearly not respecting the rights of others. These behaviorproblems among students and schools' ridiculous views of studentdiscipline are additional reasons why I'm glad I changed my mindabout teaching high school.

In short, this article leads to the vital question we need to answer correctly as soon as possible: How can we attract moremathematically talented people into K-12 teaching? Unless we canfind an answer that works, we will face an incredibly bad teachershortage even if we raise the standards for teacher training towhere they should be.